• I Cast Fist
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    5 months ago

    Out of curiosity, does anyone have a timeline of tuition prices, whether average or of a single university, from 1980s to 2020 or so?

    • BlackAura@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I was able to look it up for my Canadian university, somewhat. Every year they issued the Calendar which included a section called tuitions and fees. It can be slightly complex to read depending on the degree you’re going for.

      https://www.ucalgary.ca/pubs/calendar/archives/index.html

      They have all the years it’s been digitally available in the link above. I suspect you could go to the campus library and find older publications to go back further.

      Generally you’re looking for “Undergraduate” and “Fees”. Depending on the year it’s a PDF, or a table in html.

      If you’re not used to reading it it can be painful and more complex the more recent it gets. Plus you need to sometimes know terms unique to that university.

      I. E. If they say Shulich they are referring to the Engineering program. If they say Haskayne they are referring to business. Most of the other programs are referred to by proper name, I. E. Music, Law, Medicine, etc.

      Most programs are 5 courses per semester though some may have you do 6 in the odd semester if you want to graduate in 4 years (alternatively you take longer, like my 4.5 years to get my B. SC, or fit them in in spring or summer)

      Generally you can assume a single course is 3 units, and a single semester will be 5 courses, if the table you’re looking at is showing you the price per 3 units.

      Unfortunately while the course price hasn’t gone up huge amounts (until the last few years where they tried to simplify things with categories), all those extra static fees, or extra charges for specific programs, per semester have gone up a lot.

      In 2003 the general fees for say engineering were $275. 5 courses were $2190. For a total of $2465 per semester.

      Divided back out that’s just under $500/course.

      In 2013 general fees are $588. Courses are $2666. Engineering specific fees are $30. For a total of $3254.

      Divided back out that’s about $650/course.

      In 2023 the general fees are about $834. The per course rate for engineering is category D, or $908 per course. That’s $5374/semester.

      Or about $1075/course.